Lane Powell Shareholders Katheryn Bradley and Laura Marquez-Garrett authored an article in Seattle Business magazine’s May 2014 issue titled “Do You Know Where Your Data Went? Best Practices for Preserving Electronically Stored Information.” In the article, Bradley and Marquez-Garrett detailed a number of best practices for preserving electronically stored information. Preserving this information has become increasingly important in today’s world as more employees work off-site and use mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops.
A federal judge in Illinois recently ordered a large pharmaceutical company to pay nearly $1 million because when the business was sued, it failed to remind its sale representatives to preserve text messages. Last year, a Colorado judge was similarly unsympathetic when a firm sued for tortious interference, then claimed its president’s lost iPhone did not contain relevant evidence. For those on the courthouse steps, the question has become: “Do you know where your data went?”